All Things Baby Food/Solids

SandNStarsNJ

It's fun before one for most of us. So what are doing for fun?

What have/are you going to try?
What made you decide to try it now?
How's it going?

SandNStarsNJ

At 17 weeks we squished a tiny bit of banana and mixed it with BM. LO ate it but looked super confused. So then yesterday at 18 weeks I gave him a few spoonfuls of puréed sweet potato which he didn't seem into until I stopped, at which point he started grabbing for the spoon. 

We made the the decision to introduce food now because he follows our hands to mouth when we're eating and tried to grabbed food off my plate a few weeks back. He also can sit in the high chair without issue, but it helps that he's 28" so he can clear the high chair top. I don't intend on it being anything more than a taste introduction once or twice a week for a while, but it switches things up and gives him something new to do. 

camcbeth

We started at 4 months with rice cereal. She hated it. Every few days we tried something new. Haven't done a lot, and are on a rotating menu of apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, and carrots.

I waited with our first till 6 months because the dr said to wait. This time the dr said I could start at 4 months so I did. Plus she was following the food from plate to mouth and was showing interest. 

She loves sweet potatoes, I can't feed them to her fast enough. Not a big fan of apples or rice cereal so I've been mixing the two and she will eat like a champ. Might try avocados next.

lajoliedreamer

We'd been intending to wait until 6 months, but lately she's been acting very interested in what we're eating so yesterday I gave her the tiniest bit of hummus on my finger. I put just a bit right inside her mouth and she waited a sec, ate it, then grabbed my finger and sucked the rest off. I'm not planning to do more food right away, but will probably do avocado or banana next. 

tvh1982

Ive started last week.
Here in the Netherlands we start with introducing foods at 4 months if the child can support its head. (and shows interests) We talk about teaspoon tries. 
We get recommended to start with vegetables as fruits are sweeter, we also get recommended not to swopp between vegetables and let our LO get used to one vegetable at a time.
Ive given my LO cauliflower, but she's not impressed. I've only tried it 3 times, but think I'll swopp to carrots as I reckon those are a little less bitter. 
My LO is not sure what to do with it, and stops swallowing. It's adorable. I had my niece film it

ZoeFer

I smashed little bit banana and mixed with my BM this weekend. I thought she would be confused but she knew it was food and started to swallow slowly. She enjoyed it a lot. We are planning to go with carrots, sweet potato and banana once a while. 

SandNStarsNJ

Sweet potato has apparently welcomed daily poops for LO for the first time in his life. Hooray!

tvh1982

Yeah so here I was with a plan of introducing food properly and healthy...
Had homemade French fries at my aunts, my LO was eying my food, so as a joke I handed her an unsalted cold one....she attacked the bloody fries! Knew exactly where to put it! Not that she ate it though, once touching her mouth she was done with it. So yeah that wasn't my smartest move, back to vegetables and no joking about.

hoosiermama-2

This thread is making me They're getting so old!!!


(No foods here yet but I will enjoy reading your posts.)

m6agua

LO just had her 4 month check up yesterday at 4 months 2 weeks. I asked about BLW vs Purees, she is more old school with the purees. H and I are on the fence to go either way, I just need to do more research. But we both know she isn't quite ready for solids. We have a couple trips coming up and I think we will push it off until after those so mid-May at the earliest. She will be almost 6 months.

SandNStarsNJ

Waiting for dinner last night!

kristah2

@m6agua we're doing BLW! Starting at 6 months. 
I did A LOT of research. Including talking in depth with a good friend who is a family doctor (and was very neutral when I was really hoping she would tell me what to do). We have decided to give it a try! I am half way through the book now and I definitely recommend reading it if you're thinking it may be an option. It helped me solidify my decision 

kvruns

I'm too lazy to google, what is the gist of BLW? 

kristah2

@kvruns it's baby led weaning meaning baby decides when and how to wean instead of parents. So you actually start with solids right away! They can eat everything and anything from the start. 
As opposed to purées and transitioning slowly (in this case parents are actually spoon feeding baby and deciding what and how much and how fast baby will eat). 

kvruns

thanks @kristah2 I seriously have no desire to start food yet so maybe I need to look into this

kristah2

@kvruns could be a good option for you then! You don't start until 6 months and even then because they are mostly just testing out new flavours and textures etc and they aren't actually eating for the sake of getting full (like if we were to actually spoon feed purées) they continue to use milk as a primary nutrition / feeding source. It is the prime example of food under one is just for fun since they control what and how much they get. 

SandNStarsNJ

Whats the book @kristah2?

kristah2

tvh1982

I never knew about BLW. 
Things I learn on this board! Glad I came back, you ladies are a lovely bunch.

m6agua

kristah2 said:

@m6agua we're doing BLW! Starting at 6 months. 
I did A LOT of research. Including talking in depth with a good friend who is a family doctor (and was very neutral when I was really hoping she would tell me what to do). We have decided to give it a try! I am half way through the book now and I definitely recommend reading it if you're thinking it may be an option. It helped me solidify my decision 

I'm going to see if my local library has a copy I can get. Hopefully I can find time to read in the next month and a half! I still haven't finished a sleep book my friend loaned me and she needs it back soon.

MrsMaryK2016

@m6agua Sounds like you don't like to buy books but I use the Kindle app on my phone to read when nursing or rocking M. It's the only time I get to read now and it keeps me from falling asleep at 2am and 5am.

m6agua

@mrsmaryk2016 I am open to buying it but I figured I would check out the library first. I don't know how well reading during feeding would work. I formula feed so I always have one hand on the bottle and she moves around so much now that it's a little difficult to do anything on my phone.

Emmaholmes89

 I've just been letting her lick fruits and veg when she shows interest in what we're eating. Apple was a hit so I'll be trying a purée for her soon 

I might take that book recommendation too!

Megz1902

I am trying to read the BLW book while pumping at work. I think that is our plan too. Might do some purees once she can sit in the high chair, but ultimately feel BLW is the way to go for us. But, we will see what she wants to do. My Dr. said we could start solids closer to 6 months. I'm excited, but man these babies are growing up fast!

mrsmoose5

LO is 22 weeks and I think I'm going to introduce some food in the next few days. She's been trying to grab everything I put in my mouth lately and has even been trying to drink out of DS's sippy cups when I have them in my hands. I really like the idea of BLW and have done a little reading online about it, but definitely don't have time to read a whole book about it ... maybe I'll do a little of both?

lajoliedreamer

We're planning to do a combo of purees and BLW, but I think we'll probably do more BLW just because we can feed her whatever we're eating (for the most part) and not put extra effort into it. 

kristah2

Just FYI from everything I read you shouldn't combine BLW and purées. The reason being is because with purées they just swallow. With food they have to chew.  If they are switching back they are likely to just try to swallow the solids and the risk of choaking is significantly higher. 
Personally not worth it to me as much as I like the ide of combo. They said if yoh are giving anything puréed it should be on a pre loaded spoon they give themselves. Very messy but they are more in control which is the point of BLW. 
Take it for what it's worth but just base s on research I've done! 

mrsmoose5

@kristah2 Thank you for posting that! Definitely won't be combining them then. See, I feel like I haven't done enough reading on BLW to commit to it 

kristah2

@mrsmoose5 I'm in a BLW Facebook group for my area and reading posts gave me a lot of knowledge. And then a bit of trading on websites like WHO etc. 
Im 60 pages into the book now. 
Ive heard that the best thing you can do is watch videos on choaking vs gagging. It's the most important part of it. That and how to serve/cut the food you're giving! 


benefit of this group is we can all share info and I'm happy to share all I know on BLW! 

lajoliedreamer

I don't know enough about BLW, but that makes sense. Thanks @kristah2!

MollySm

We haven't started food yet, because she still seems such a tiny baby, and isn't showing interest yet.  I follow more of a 'do what makes sense to me' approach to feeding.  BLW seemed too all or nothing to me.  I let my other kids try things when they seemed interested, and I also mashed or pureed things for them.  I find that cutting food in the shape of a french fry works the best for little babies holding.  But also that sometimes they want to eat a decent amount of a food and pureeing works best for that.  I usually start with veggies, and then add in fruits, eggs, meats, beans, etc.  I often just puree what we are having for dinner (with immersion blender). The only thing I don't feed them is honey (have to wait until they are 1).  

SandNStarsNJ

Here's what I've learned with this LO so far: carrots cause constipation, sweet potatoes help poop, and prunes both help poop and cause constipation. This LO has some seriously complicated bowels. 

kvruns

We've tried rice cereal bc my Dr suggested it first. LO has 0 interest in it at all. Maybe because we've only tried twice in 5 days but thus far he doesn't really get it 

SandNStarsNJ

kvruns said:

We've tried rice cereal bc my Dr suggested it first. LO has 0 interest in it at all. Maybe because we've only tried twice in 5 days but thus far he doesn't really get it 

Rice cereal also doesn't really have any flavor so he might not be insentivized. I stick to veggies because there's some nutrition and flavor. 

camcbeth

S hated the rice cereal too. I started to stir in apples and carrots to the rice cereal so that it has some flavor and she will now chow down. 

mrsmoose5

So far we've done sweet potato, which resulted mainly in confusion and slight revulsion (?) lol. Today she tried mango and still seemed a little confused by the whole eating thing, but enjoyed the mango much more. One thing's for sure, she loves sitting at the table with us, especially next to DS 

anne11716

Ok how much/often do we give them when they first start off? We are on day two of sweet potatoes once a day. He ate the whole jar today and half yesterday but I did it for lunch only both times. What's the next step? Lunch and dinner? I'm going to do peas and carrots next and was planning on just doing once a day for both and then maybe moving to lunch and dinner with different food

SandNStarsNJ

For introduction you want to average 1-3 tablespoons after a BM or formula feed and progress from there. After 6 months you can start to phase in food in lieu of a milk feed, but still should be doing more liquid than solid. Or at least that's how I've done it before and am trying this time though this LO is getting constipated so frequently that we're currently only doing about 3 tablespoons a day on the weekends. 

camcbeth

At 5 months I'm only doing food once a day, but giving S 20-25oz of milk. So the food is really a bonus. At 6 months I'll start really experimenting with baby food. If I remember from my first, it was around 8 months when I was half food and half milk. 

Ladybug2821

The Pedi told me at 6 months you want to start giving them solids 3 times a day.  But as PP said, milk is still the bulk of their caloric intake.  I'm going to get more info when I go to LO's 6 month check up because I'm unsure of the amount per meal.  Right now, I try to give her a solid twice a day and I do 1-2 teaspoons.  She may want me to increase the amount per meal since she will be 6 months. 

kvruns

Please tell me I'm not the only lazy one with solids? I was home with him 4 days in a row but only did it once. I really meant to try more but life gets in the way and I don't make it a priority